BRITISH BIRDS, 
365 
Europe* i The fame progrefs of them is obferved in 
Afia, where they are met with about Kamtfchatka, 
&c* They frequent the lakes in the interior of all 
thofe parts as well as the fea-fliores. The flocks 
which vifit the Orkney Ifles appear in Oftoberg and 
continue there till April ; and about fun-fet they 
are feen in vafl: companies going to and returning 
from the bays^ in which they frequently pafs the 
night, making fuch a noife, as in frofly weather 
may be heard fome miles/^ They are rather fcarce 
in England, whither they come only in very hard 
winters, and even then but in fmall flraggling par- 
ties. They fly fwiftly, but feldom to a great diftance, 
making a loud and lingular cry. They are expert 
divers, and are fuppofed to live chiefly upon fliell- 
fifli. 
The female, it is faid, makes her nefl: among the 
grafs near the water, lined, like that of the Eider 
Duck, with her own equally valuable down. Her 
eggs are of a bluifli white colour, about the fize of 
thofe of a Pullet. Latham fays flie lays five ; others 
aflfert that the number is feldom fewer than ten, 
and often as many as fourteen or fifteen.’* Some 
are of opinion that the latter number may be the 
produce of two females, as is faid to be the cafe 
with the Eider Duck. When the young are hatch- 
ed, the mother carries them to the water in her bill. 
Latham defcribes the Anas hyemalis of Linn^us 
as the female of this fpecies : he fays the bill is the 
